Dive Summary:

• The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) was considering an increase in the state’s reserve margin from 13.75% to 16.1% to gain resource adequacy as the state faces record-breaking power demand and heat.
• But Senator Troy Fraser, in a letter to ERCOT Monday, is pressuring the grid operator to deny the power industry the increase. "With the makeup of the ERCOT board weighted heavily in the electric industry's favor, any vote to drastically increase the reserve margin appears to be self-serving and could increase electric costs for all consumers," Fraser said in the letter.
• Tuesday, ERCOT and its 16 board members, decided not to make a decision on the proposal which would result in utility customers paying for more generating capacity. Currently in Texas' deregulated market, customers pay for “energy only,” or the energy they use, not for energy generation.

From the article:

“But the high-level debate now is on whether to change the “energy only” market to a “capacity” market. In that case, consumers would pay extra each month, with the increase meant to entice power companies to invest in more generating capacity.”